Unemployment Up Over ’09, But Steady Month-to-Month
April
2010
May
2009
9.8% 9.2%
8.3% 7.5%
10.7% 10.2%
8.2% 7.6%
8.4% 7.3%
11.3% 10.6%
10.9% 9.9%
9.4% 9.1%
9.1% 8.1%
10.5% 9.5%
8.3% 8.8%
5.9% 6.0%
Metropolitan Area (State*)
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta County (GA)
Boston-Cambridge-Quincy (MA)
Chicago-Joliet-Naperville (IL)
Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington (TX)
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown (TX)
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana (CA)
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach (FL)
New York City (NY)
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington (PA)
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont (CA)
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (WA)
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria (DC)
May
2010
9.9%
8.2%
10.3%
8.1%
8.3%
11.4%
11.2%
9.4%
9.4%
10.1%
8.4%
6.0%
consecutive years of the past decade. Year-to-date volume in Manhattan is up nearly
100% from 2009, and 2010 is on pace to
match the tallies seen during the market’s peak: perhaps 2007’s total of 22. 9
million square feet, according to CBRE,
Atlanta: Office
Source: Jones Lang LaSalle Q2 2010
Change from
Q2 2009
Overall Vacancy
22.1%
Absorption 382,158 sf
Avg. Asking Rents $20.35 psf
Under Construction 0
Atlanta: Industrial
Source: CB Richard Ellis
Q2 2010
Change from
Q2 2009
Overall Vacancy
14.3%
Absorption 459,00 sf
Avg. Asking Rents $3.34 psf
Under Construction
1. 1 million sf
Source: US Bureau of Labor Services
*as listed in BLS data
If one does occur, Chicago-based Bach
adds, “it would be shallow, certainly not
a repeat of what we had in 2008 and
2009. The drivers of that recession were
more severe and there were more
unknowns than there are now.”
However, the known factors are
enough to pose some substantial chal-
lenges for the industry. “The private sec-
tor is simply not hiring aggressively
enough to lower unemployment,” says
Thorpe, chief economist at Cassidy
Turley in Washington, DC. This poses
the risk of a stalling recovery, he says,
adding, “As we move away from a stimu-
lus-based recovery, we expect to see some
unimpressive economic data for a
while.”
Yet the private sector has been slowly
reinstating some of the 8. 4 million jobs
that were shed over the course of the
Great Recession. About 100,000 jobs
have been added nationwide per month
since the beginning of 2010, says Ken
McCarthy, managing director of research
for the New York metro region at
Cushman & Wakefield.
Even June’s comparatively dismal
unemployment figures don’t look quite
as bad when you examine them more
closely, points out James Costello, princi-
pal with Boston-based CB Richard Ellis
Econometric Advisors. While 125,000
jobs were shed across the US during the
month, he says, much of that downsizing
was due to layoffs of temporary census
workers. The private sector actually added
80,000 positions.
Source: Richards Barry
Joyce & Partners LLC Q2 2010 Boston: Office
Change from
Q2 2009
Overall Vacancy 16%
Absorption
39,000 sf
Avg. Asking Rents $35.51 psf
Source: CB Richard Ellis Boston: Industrial
Q2 2010
Change from
Q2 2009
Overall Vacancy
17.3%
Absorption (290,000 sf)
Avg. Asking Rents $6.74 psf
Source: CB Richard Ellis Change from
Q2 2009 Q2 2010 Boston/Cambridge: Lab
Overall Vacancy
13.1%
Absorption
53,000 sf
Avg. Asking Rents (NNN) $50.60 psf
or the 2005 sum of 26. 4 million square
feet, as C&W predicts.
Manhattan and other top office markets
across the US have begun to tick upward
again following nine consecutive quarters
of occupancy declines. Thirty-one CBDs
